April 12, 2016

Hail - the sign of God's divine judgment

Yesterday, there was a terrible hail storm in North Texas where a lot of homes and vehicles were damaged by the hail.My wife and I moved to southeast Texas at the end of October 2015, where I now pastor a new church and we had a storm here not too long ago where it did hail, but they were the size of a quarter, not the baseball size hail that had fallen in North Texas yesterday.

Wylie, Texas was the hardest hit area too.

The storm and the news reports got me to thinking about what the bible has to say concerning hail and what so many people don't know about it, since it is more than just a weather experience. Hail has a very specific meaning in the bible and we should all pay attention to it.When Moses came to Pharaoh to tell him to let God's people go, one of the plagues they experienced was hail (Exodus 9:13-34).

In Isaiah 28 hail is described as a sign of God's judgment and in another Old Testament book of Haggai, in chapter 2, it is mentioned as divine judgment and sadly in this chapter, the people did not turn back to God after this happened.

In the last book of the New Testament, Revelation, hail is used as a sign of God's coming judgment. At the first trumpet, in Revelation 8:7, hail and fire, mixed with blood are cast upon the earth.

Finally, in Revelation 16:21, John writes, "And great hailstones, about one hundred pounds each, fell from heaven on people; and they cursed God for the plague of the hail, because the plague was so severe."Now, I am not implying in any way that the residents of North Texas are under any sort of judgment by God. These hailstones were not 100 lbs. in weight, but the size of a baseball. However, imagine if all of the United States experienced hail such as this, what would everyone think God was saying to us? Is that what is needed for God to get our attention?This, along with other events that will occur in our lifetime, especially from Matthew 24:6-7, they are the beginning of the birth pains the world will experience before the Lord returns. And if this is a sign that return of Christ is imminent and more importantly unknown, it would behoove any person, to repent of their sins that Jesus Christ suffered the penalty of death for, which He did not commit, where His death on the cross is the satisfying atonement to God, to forgive you of your sins and by putting your trust exclusively in Jesus Christ to save you, you will escape God's condemnation of sending you to hell and be given the promise of eternal life with Him in his kingdom (John 3:16-18; 36).

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I believe that those sermons which are fullest of Christ are the most likely to be blessed to the conversion of the hearers. Let your sermons be full of Christ, from beginning to end crammed full of the Gospel. As for myself, brethren, I cannot preach anything else but Christ and His Cross, for I know nothing else, and long ago, like the Apostle Paul, I determined not to know anything else save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon